Tuesday, November 18, 2008

Some of you visited us in the RV before we left MN, but many of you are probably wondering just exactly what we are living in. We may have downsized, but we don't feel deprived what so ever. We are very blessed to be traveling in a beautiful 2007 Newmar All Star that we purchased from the wonderful people at Howard RV in Wilmington, NC. It is 42 feet long plus we are towing our minivan. We have one slide - which means the wall slides out to make it bigger while we are parked. The booth and the couch are on the slide - so it's basically the entire length of our living space.

This is our kitchen area complete with a double sink, filtered water, 3-burner propane stove, double sided refrigerator with ice maker, and a microwave/convection oven. The rectangular area on the floor is the trap door to the engine...it's a mid-engine diesel. We now have a rug covering that area.

Here's where we eat our meals and do our school work. Ashley and Jake each have a drawer under the booth seat to keep their books and school supplies.

This is our living room with our new storage ottoman which makes it nice to put our feet up and read. The couch also makes into a bed. We keep all our current week information in the seat pocket on the driver's seat.

The kids ride here while we are traveling. When we're parked, this turns into Rich's office.

The kids each have their own bunk and three drawers. They use one drawer each for clothes so they have two drawers for books, craft projects, etc...

This is our cozy little bedroom. We have lots of storage for books and there is a flip-down TV on the ceiling where we (all four of us plus Macie) snuggle up to watch movies. Right outside the bedroom across from the bunks, we have a closet and six deep drawers which is more than enough space for our clothes, vacuum, files, etc. We also have another hall closet that has a combination washer/dryer and room for jackets.

Outside we also have a lot of storage areas. Some of the items we keep in our "basement" include sports stuff - tennis rackets, balls, etc.; Rich and Connie's bikes; laundry baskets, outdoor chairs, sewing machine, and a few other items. The kids' bikes travel in the back of the minivan.

One thing we are really enjoying about living in a smaller space is how much less time it takes to clean. We don't have much stuff, so it doesn't take long to put it away. We don't have much space, so everything has to have a place. And we don't have very many square feet so we can vacuum the whole house in five minutes. So far...we give it the thumbs up!